Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Headlines from The Bookseller

The Bookseller's Assocation has warned Amazon is "gaming
the system" and branded the business rates regime
"unfair" yet again after it emerged the online retail giant paid
£63m in business rates despite recording £8bn in UK sales.

British book buyers awoke in January from their collective
holiday hangover/food coma and embraced "New Year, New You"
tightly, with 12 titles in last week's UK Official Top 50 in the healthy
eating, fitness and personal development space, led by Joe Wicks' latest
chart-topper.

Independent publisher Joe Pearson of Design for Today who lost
£100,000 worth of stock in the Croydon warehouse fire has been “astonished”
by an online funding campaign raising almost £25,000 from well-wishers.

An "exposé" of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn
from investigative biographer Tom Bower, Dangerous
Hero: Corbyn's Ruthless Plot for Power, will be published by
William Collins next month, with the publisher promising an “explosive and
important” book.

Puffin, part of Penguin Random House Children’s, will this
April publish Jeff Kinney’s first novel outside of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid
series, about protagonist Greg Heffley’s best friend Rowley Jefferson.